Nasa, Boeing Developing Space Launch System for Mars Rocket

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By Indo Asian News Service | Updated: 4 July 2014 16:23 IST
Nasa, Boeing Developing Space Launch System for Mars Rocket
In what could be billed as a step to build the most powerful rocket to take astronauts to Mars, Nasa has finalised a $2.8 billion contract with Houston-headquartered Boeing Space Exploration to develop its prestigious Space Launch System (SLS).

The six-and-a-half-year SLS contract runs through 2021 and calls for Boeing to deliver two SLS cores - including hydrogen and oxygen tanks - and avionics.

"Our teams have dedicated themselves to ensuring that the SLS - the largest ever - will be built safely, affordably and on time," Virginia Barnes, Boeing's Space Launch System vice president and program manager, said in a statement.

The rocket will carry the Orion spacecraft that can carry up to four astronauts beyond low-earth orbit on deep-space exploration missions, including the Red planet.

The rocket's core stage will get its power from four RS-25 engines - the former space shuttle main engines - built by Aerojet Rocketdyne of Canoga Park.

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"Besides work on the rocket's core stage, the new SLS contract also authorises Boeing to begin studying a new SLS upper stage - which Nasa and Boeing call the Exploration Upper Stage," Nasa spokesperson Rachel Kraft said in a statement.

The rocket is scheduled for its initial test flight from Cape Canaveral in Florida in 2017.

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The first mission will launch an empty Orion spacecraft.

The second mission in 2021 will launch Orion and a crew of up to four Nasa astronauts.

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